BuildingGreen Announces Top-10 Green Building Products for 2012
Toronto, ON (October 06, 2011)—
BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of GreenSpec and Environmental Building News, today announced the Top-10 Green Building Products for 2012. This tenth annual award, announced at the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild Conference in Toronto, recognizes the building products representing important green building innovations for the year ahead.
“There are more ‘green’ building products than ever, but not all of them address a real need—or worse, some of them may create new problems down the road,” says BuildingGreen founder and GreenSpec executive editor Alex Wilson. “In selecting this year’s Top-10 products, we looked for companies that solved pressing needs in energy efficiency, reduced toxicity in building materials, enhanced retrofit applications and offered unique solutions in other areas.”
This year’s selections are diverse, including a packaged graywater system facilitating landscaping water efficiency, a pioneering solar thermal system using water as its heat-transfer medium instead of glycol for increased efficiency, an air-to-air heat pump system with integrated tenant submetering—key for multifamily applications— and a durable, PVC-free resilient flooring. “Products with multiple environmental attributes, such as durability combined with low toxicity, remain a key frame of reference for our Top-10 selections,” said Wilson.
BuildingGreen’s Top-10 product selections, as in previous years, are drawn primarily from new additions to GreenSpec, the company’s database of best-in-class green building products, with more than 2,200 featured listings and product lines. “It’s exciting to see the new products being introduced to the market each month,” said Wilson. New products are reviewed in-depth in Environmental Building News and in GreenSpec’s email newsletter.
A big driver in the development of green products continues to be the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which awards points for the use of certain product types or for the energy or water savings that certain green products can achieve. “LEED continues to spur manufacturers toward market transformation,” said Wilson. GreenSpec users can find products organized by LEED credits as well as by building category and the CSI MasterFormat structure.
The BuildingGreen Top-10 Green Building Products for 2012 are listed below. More complete descriptions are available following the links below, or by downloading the attached word documents or PDFs.
“There are more ‘green’ building products than ever, but not all of them address a real need—or worse, some of them may create new problems down the road,” says BuildingGreen founder and GreenSpec executive editor Alex Wilson. “In selecting this year’s Top-10 products, we looked for companies that solved pressing needs in energy efficiency, reduced toxicity in building materials, enhanced retrofit applications and offered unique solutions in other areas.”
This year’s selections are diverse, including a packaged graywater system facilitating landscaping water efficiency, a pioneering solar thermal system using water as its heat-transfer medium instead of glycol for increased efficiency, an air-to-air heat pump system with integrated tenant submetering—key for multifamily applications— and a durable, PVC-free resilient flooring. “Products with multiple environmental attributes, such as durability combined with low toxicity, remain a key frame of reference for our Top-10 selections,” said Wilson.
BuildingGreen’s Top-10 product selections, as in previous years, are drawn primarily from new additions to GreenSpec, the company’s database of best-in-class green building products, with more than 2,200 featured listings and product lines. “It’s exciting to see the new products being introduced to the market each month,” said Wilson. New products are reviewed in-depth in Environmental Building News and in GreenSpec’s email newsletter.
A big driver in the development of green products continues to be the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which awards points for the use of certain product types or for the energy or water savings that certain green products can achieve. “LEED continues to spur manufacturers toward market transformation,” said Wilson. GreenSpec users can find products organized by LEED credits as well as by building category and the CSI MasterFormat structure.
The BuildingGreen Top-10 Green Building Products for 2012 are listed below. More complete descriptions are available following the links below, or by downloading the attached word documents or PDFs.
- InterfaceFLOR carpet tiles with non-PFC carpet fibers (CSI MasterFormat 09 68 13 – Tile Carpeting)
- Lifeline PVC-free resilient flooring from Upofloor OY imported by Altro Floors (CSI MasterFormat 06 73 00 – Composite Decking)
- Knight Wall CI-Girt Rainscreen System from Knight Wall Systems (CSI MasterFormat 07 42 63 – Fabricated Wall Panel Assemblies)
- EonCoat waterborne ceramic coating from EonCoat LLC (CSI MasterFormat 09 91 13 – Exterior Painting)
- Aqua2use Graywater System from Water Wise Group, Inc. (CSI MasterFormat 22 16 00 – Graywater Systems)
- Cypress Envirosystems analog-to-digital wireless thermostat (CSI MasterFormat 23 09 00 – Instrumentation and Control for HVAC)
- Ritter XL solar thermal system from Regasol (CSI MasterFormat 23 56 14 – Heating Solar Concentrating Collectors)
- Mitsubishi Electric’s Ductless Heat Pumps and Variable Refrigerant Flow Systems with Tenant Submetering (CSI MasterFormat 23 81 26 – Mini- and Multi-Split-Systems)
- AllSun Trackers from AllEarth Renewables (CSI MasterFormat 26 37 00 – Alternative Energy Balance of Systems Components)
- Philips EnduraLEDs from Philips Lighting. (CSI MasterFormat 26 51 16 – LED Lighting)
About GreenSpec
GreenSpec is the leading national resource for best-in-class green building products. Products are selected by BuildingGreen based on rigorous criteria developed over more than 20 years. Manufacturers do not pay to be listed in GreenSpec, and neither GreenSpec nor Environmental Building News carries advertising. “Our policy of not accepting money from manufacturers allows us to be objective in our review of products,” said Wilson. Environmental Building News, founded in 1992, is the oldest and most widely respected newsletter in the green building field. Other BuildingGreen resources include LEEDuser, a resource for teams pursuing certification through the LEED Rating System. BuildingGreen, Inc., celebrates its 25th year in business this year. For information on BuildingGreen resources, visit http://www.buildinggreen.com/ or call 800-861-0954.
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